A blockchain-based information market to incentivise cooperation in swarms of self-interested robots.

ABSTRACT: Robot swarms are generally considered to be composed of cooperative agents that, despite their limited individual capabilities, can perform difficult tasks by working together. However, in open swarms, where different robots can be added to the swarm by different parties with potentially competing interests, cooperation is but one of many strategies. We envision an information market where robots can buy and sell information through transactions stored on a distributed blockchain, and where cooperation is encouraged by the economy itself. As a proof of concept, we study a classical foraging task, where exchanging information with other robots is paramount to accomplish the task efficiently. We illustrate that even a single robot that lies to others-a so-called Byzantine robot-can heavily d

SUBMITTER: Van Calck L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10663462 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature